Germany

The limit between Art Nouveau and the fonctionalism school (Bauhaus) of Gropius is very
moving. It depends a lot of the point of view. The architect Behrens is seen for instance
as belonging to the two movements. The German word for "Art Nouveau" is
Jugendstil. Literaly it is the style of the magazine called "Jugend" (which
means youth). Jugend was created in 1897 in München.

In 1900, the German empire was governed by the Prussian, and it was divided in many
"great dukedom" that had a limited autonomy against the central power of
Guillaume II. Its borders included Alsace and Lorraine which were annexed in 1870 from
France and are now back to France. The town of Strasbourg is therefore described in a
german context.

Various Secession movements were created in the main towns of the german empire at the
end of 19th century. This movements and artists in "applied arts" are relatively
well studied whereas Art Nouveau architecture is not as well known in Germany today.
Despite of the destruction of World War II, nearly every big town of Germany still have
Art Nouveau buildings that you can find in no books but by wandering in 1900 blocks, often
architectural guides ignore them.

This town is about 30 kilometers away in the south from Frankfurt. The great duke Ernst
Ludwig founded in 1899 a colony of 7 artists. Its aim was to present to people a modern
block integrating housing and work place. This block is located on the Mathildehöhe. The
colony organised 4 exhibitions in Darmstadt in 1901, 1904, 1908 and 1914.

Tips for a visit in Darmstadt

If you have the opportunity to go to Darmstadt, visit the Artist Colony
(Künstlerkolonie) on the Mathildehöhe quater. It is the place where most of the AN
buildings are. It is small but the quater was entirely designed by AN artists. The three
main things to see are

Museum Künstlerkolonie (House ...). It was built as a temple for the Arts and has now
been turned to a nice museum.

House Müller: the most terrific house in Darmstadt.

Hochzeitsturm (Wedding tower): It is visitable but don't unless the wedding room is
open. The fare is expensive for a poor sightseeing. It is an AN fan trap. Just enter the
hall and look at the mosaic. That is all that you would pay for and it is not worth. This
tower was a wedding gift to the great duke from the town. The symbol is unity and
complementarity as the 5 fingers.

House Müller(86 Kb)

Visit also the Hessische Landes Museum. It has a very
good international collection of Art Nouveau objects. (Tiffany, Van de Velde, Behrens, Gallé, ...)

The main area for Art Nouveau builings is in Schwabig
village. The Jugendstil was named after the art and design magasine "Jugend"
which was created in 1897 in Munich. According to some people, it was pure hazard that it
has been created in this town as Munich inhabitants where very conservative. There are
lots of Jugendstil buildings in Munich and particularly in the Schwabig quater. These
buildings are often very similar to the standard Munichan house except that they have a
Jugendstil stuccos instead of baroco ones. It is very rare to find a stone building. Most
of them are covered with a neattly painted roughcast or coating. Jugendstil architects
often play with surface and color effects on the roughcast. The stucco patterns are
representing owls, peacocks and vegetals. Geometrical patterns are rarer. The wellknown
Jugendstil woman face is also widely represented. The houses are often cubic with
regularly spaced windows, some of the AN buildings use a more modern structure with large
window bays. Curves come with height in the roofs that are inspired by tradition. The most
wellknown facade of Munich disapeared with world war II (Elvira Workshop by Endell 1898).